Wow, everyone. We are almost at the end! I will admit that when I had the idea of these planner reviews I underestimated the time/mental energy they take and did not account for a whole move shoved in there!
the envelope for Annabel’s teacher gift. Sums it up well.
So here we are, close to the end of the year — and with 2 more. Our penultimate planner is the Amelia Lane. This is another woman-led company (yay!). Chanel, the creator and designer, lives in Australia so these planners started there, but there are now distribution centers in the UK & US so more of us can enjoy her beautiful creations.
Chanel WINS the generosity award, sending me FOUR planners. I felt like some sort of planner influencer VIP when the box arrived (trust me, I am not, with my 1480 shubox_plans followers 😉 ).
She sent the whole line: a Compact Daily, Compact Weekly, Desktop Daily, and Desktop Weekly. WOW! In the interest of efficiency, I will not do 38734 screenshots from each planner. They are definitely similar – the main differences are just size (Compact vs Desktop) and Daily vs Weekly. Each might be perfect for the right customer, so let’s dive in!
Overview: First of all, these are so so pretty. The palm tree print is just so cute, in a well-designed sort of way. They are also bound (no coils!), in sturdy hardback, and with lovely gold protective corners on each one.
compact weekly
In lieu of tabs, the pages are notched like a dictionary, creating a stairstep effect. It definitely works!
Each planner opens with what I feel is one of the most useful areas: a yearly planner BOTH for 2019 and 2020!! I always struggle when I get midway through the year and start planning big events for the next year, so this is an elegant solution (note to self: build a 2020 list into my own system). The columns/boxes are just big enough to note the big things coming up, like a work trip, vacation, or key school dates.
There is also a monthly overview and vision board at the beginning of each planner. Everything is parallel in the 4 books, it’s just smaller in the compact versions. I can write quite small so it doesn’t bother me, but this is definitely personal preference.
Here are some more monthly pages — a budget trackers, meal/exercise planner (in the WEEKLIES, not the dailies which have space for it on each page), a monthly calendar, and goals/habit trackers. I definitely think Chanel was inspired by bullet journalists, which is a great thing in my book!
budgeting pages – not a common feature in the planners I’ve seen this year!
Here’s the meal and exercise planner, present in the weekly books. I don’t know that it’s truly enough to fit meals AND exercises (maybe in the Desktop, but not the compact). However, it would work great for dinners or workouts, one or the other!
The main pages:
One thing I’ve learned from these reviews is that to really use a planner, you have to love the layout of the main pages. Everyone is different in what they need from their main planning pages, and here are two fairly extreme versions:
fairly minimal: the Compact Weekly main page
Totally enormous amount of space: the Desktop Daily Main Page
Please note, this book is really amazing but it’s GIANT – definitely for the desktop. Here are some photos for size:
next to my large-sized MacBook for scale
HEAVY
Small but mighty: the Compact Daily Main Page (I could not bear to sully ALL of these with my faux page!)
Paper: Fairly smooth, not a lot of bleed through or smear potential, feels like nice copy paper. Worked nicely with my 0.3 Pilot Hi Tec Gel Maica.
Sadly, Genevieve has been making a lot of noise since 5:10 (AGHGHGHGH) so I am going to end this review with final thoughts:
1) Amelia Lane planners are very pretty and functional!
2) They would appeal to someone who doesn’t want coils, who wants meals/fitness integrated into the planner, and (in the case of the Daily versions) doesn’t mind a thick planner. The Desktop Daily in particular is quite an impressive package but would likely need to stay in one space (GIANT).
3) I would like to give these to you! Please comment below if you would like one, and specify which one. The early bird will get the worm here, so once all 4 are spoken for, that’s it 🙂 I can only ship to US. Please note I have filled out a page in the back of the Desktop Daily and Compact Weekly!
Also: if you have ideas for which planners I should review next year, let me know! I don’t know that I will aim for 10 again (that was . . . a lot) but perhaps 5 new ones would be fun. There are SO many on the market now, and I love that these products seem to be making a resurgence despite (or because?) of the digital world we now live in.
2 Comments
I know it’s months later but if for some reason you still have the desktop daily, I’d love that….from a fellow south floridian!
Haha i mailed those out months ago!! But hi 🙂